Most security threats online aren’t aimed directly at the platforms over which an online community interacts and goes about its occupations. Rather, the malicious users seek to isolate a weakness in one of the community’s members and gain access through social engineering.
Typically, once the criminals learn which user credentials you have used on various online services, such as game platforms and forums, they all attempt to use those same credentials on every other account that seems interesting to them. If one of those passwords is leaked, and it matches a password for your game platform account, hackers get access to your credit card information. Even if hackers cannot gain complete account access in this manner, they may still be able to steal inventory items and other valuables within the game.
If you’re an avid online gamer, you have to secure your online game accounts from online predators, as they may also be looking into sensitive information like your address, your family details, your email addresses, etc. Additionally, cybercriminals can also take advantage of personal information and accounting records saved on your computers, which could give them knowledge of your data. Malware could destroy entire gaming records, series, steal data from all those playing the game online without them being aware, deployed bots to track their credentials, hijack their systems and devices, and so on Malware could be initiated from any source like new maps, mods, and so on These malicious attacks can break your PCs security or device that you are using to log into a platform. Some of this malware is gaming-focused, steals players credentials or game assets, but some of it is banking-related; adds your PC, Mac, or smart phone to a botnet; or mines Bitcoins. Threats such as credit card data and banking account details being exposed are still present, but video games have introduced other elements that draw in cyber thieves.
Gaming Communities
The gaming communities themselves are emerging attack surfaces, where threat actors pose as players and access victims’ devices and personal data. Online games, and especially massively multiplayer (MMO) games, have experienced numerous attacks by hackers, platform competitors who seek to lock players out of gaming platforms, as well as by rogue players who may target other players in order to slow down their connections, gaining competitive advantages over the other players. According to threat research group Radware, multiple attacks by hackers can bring an entire game offline, leading to hundreds of thousands of dollars lost.
Online video games are much more susceptible to cyber security issues: While regular Internet users may be going on with their day, connecting to an intermediate server can visibly slow down the players Internet speeds, preventing, and even ruining, their experience. Not every player is a pro: Some prefer to play games while streaming their experiences to live streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube Gaming, but all parties take significant losses from DDoS attacks and other security threats. As the potential rewards of compromised players’ accounts continue to grow, it is certain that malicious actors will dedicate an increasing amount of resources towards attacking both games and players.
